{"id":8898,"date":"2025-08-22T00:04:47","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T05:04:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/?p=8898"},"modified":"2025-06-21T23:07:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T04:07:07","slug":"remembering-a-literary-giant-my-interview-with-ray-bradbury-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/remembering-a-literary-giant-my-interview-with-ray-bradbury-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering a literary giant on his birthday: My interview with Ray Bradbury"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossberg<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ray Bradbury in 1975 (Creative Commons license)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ray Bradbury was born Aug. 22, 1920 and lived a creative and productive life until 2012.<\/p>\n

In honor of Bradbury’s birthday, the Prometheus Blog is reprinting an interview I did with the acclaimed and bestselling storyteller in the mid-1980s – one of the interviews I found most stimulating and satisfying during my six-decade career as a journalist, arts reporter and critic.<\/p>\n

Among the questions I asked Bradbury:
\nWhat inspired him to write his classic novel Fahrenheit 451, <\/i>later inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame?<\/p>\n

<\/i>Why did it take him only two weeks to write?
\nWhy and how did the legendary storyteller rewrite Network,<\/em> an Academy Awardwinner for Best Picture – after its release?<\/p>\n

And perhaps most lasting in his reply, what lessons from his own against-the-odds life did Bradbury offer other writers?<\/p>\n


\n\"\"<\/a>A lifelong fan of Bradbury\u2019s haunting stories and his classic cautionary novel Fahrenheit 451,<\/em> I found Bradbury to be one of the most inspiring and creative talents that I ever had the good fortune to meet and interview.<\/p>\n

While some parts of the interview, published as a feature profile Dec. 13, 1985, in The Columbus Dispatch,<\/em> now seem dated or in the category of \u201cwhat might have been\u201d (for instance, Bradbury\u2019s version of Little Nemo<\/em> never got filmed), a good bit of Bradbury\u2019s life story and good advice seems just as relevant today.<\/p>\n

Bradbury passed in 2012 at the age of 91, but his inspiring development as a storyteller offers enduring lessons for aspiring writers – and a reminder for his legions of fans of his poetic and very American spirit.<\/p>\n

Here is the first part of my profile, based on that memorable interview with Bradbury:<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t worry.<\/strong><\/em>
\nDon\u2019t think.<\/strong><\/em>
\nGet it done.<\/strong><\/em>
\nThose three rules have been posted above Ray Bradbury\u2019s typewriter for four decades.
\nAnd \u201cgetting it done\u201d is precisely what the prolific author and movie writer has been doing all those years, writing some 500 short stories, poems, screenplays and stage plays.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A VERSATILE AND BUSY AUTHOR
\n<\/b>
\nYet, with all his achievements, the award-winning author of The Martian Chronicles <\/i>and Fahrenheit 451<\/i> is not one to rest on his laurels.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s busier than ever this year (1985), having written a half-dozen scripts for his Home Box Office anthology series, Ray Bradbury Theatre,<\/i> and for the new network TV anthology revival of The Twilight Zone<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Bradbury also just published his first novel in 22 years: Death is a Lonely Business<\/i>, a murder mystery written in the style and in tribute to Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, James Cain and Ross MacDonald.<\/p>\n

The man launched his Hollywood career 30 years ago by turning Melville\u2019s Moby Dick <\/i>into a screenplay for director John Huston.<\/p>\n

Since then, Bradbury has seen most of his major novels and stories turned into movies or TV miniseries.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Perhaps most successful were Fahrenheit 451 <\/i>and Something Wicked This Way Comes. <\/i>Perhaps least successfully was the TV production of The Martian Chronicles, <\/i>starring Rock Hudson, which received mixed reviews.<\/p>\n

Bradbury is now writing another screenplay, based on the Little Nemo cartoon strip, for the producer of The Empire Strikes Back<\/i>.<\/p>\n

THE SECRETS OF HIS SUCCESS
\n<\/b>
\nWhew! Where does he find the time?<\/p>\n

What is the secret of Bradbury\u2019s success?<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying instead of \u2018working\u2019 and relaxing instead of worrying,\u201d Bradbury answered with a friendly smile, pointing to the sign above his typewriter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way you qualify yourself for work you want to do is by playing at its for years and years,\u201d said Bradbury, his cheerful countenance overshadowed only by his healthy head of long white hair.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to be a poet? Write a poem every day for the next five years. You want to be a writer? You write every single day for the next five or 10 years.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cThen your false sense of insecurity vanishes, and you discover that your real sense of insecurity is: What you don\u2019t know about poetry or writing. And then you go and change that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never worked a damn day in my life,\u201d he added, grinning slyly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always enjoying. I\u2019m always creating. I\u2019m always living at the top of my lungs. I\u2019ve played through life because I love what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

MAKING HIS OWN MAGIC
\n<\/b>
\nThat is how the modern-day Master of the Magical and the Mysterious learned to make his own magic. For the man who brewed up A Medicine for Melancholy<\/i> and Dandelion Wine<\/i> didn\u2019t begin by writing masterpieces.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ray Bradbury in 1959 (Creative Commons license)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Too poor to attend college, Bradbury used local libraries as his tuition-free university.
\n\u201cI never went to college,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cI went to the library every day, and I graduated from the library when I was 28 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bradbury has learned from both his successes and his failures.
\nAfter graduating from Los Angeles High School, he had no car, few clothes, and had to live with his parents.<\/p>\n

So Bradbury, to support himself, hawked newspapers on the streets, earning about $10 a week – and in his spare time, wrote.
\n\u201cI started writing when I was 12, and everything I wrote was bad for 10 years. It was dreadful,\u201d Bradbury said.<\/p>\n

THE START OF HIS CAREER
\n<\/b>
\nHis first story appeared in Weird Tales<\/i>, a science fiction pulp magazine of the 1940s, when he was 20 years old.
\nIt was his first sign of success, but Bradbury wasn\u2019t satisfied.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Then, when he was 22, Bradbury realized that he had written his first good short story: \u201cThe Lake,\u201d later reprinted in his short-story collection, The October Country.
\n<\/i>He wept for joy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when I knew I was a writer,\u201d he recalled.
\nBradbury added that he loves to write and he urges everyone to love the work they do, too – \u201cor go do something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes it\u2019s not easy to do what one loves to do, Bradbury admitted, recalling that he had to overcome fears of rejection in order to submit his early stories to major magazines.<\/p>\n

Finally, at the urging of a friend, he submitted three of his short stories to Collier\u2019s, Mademoiselle <\/i>and Charm <\/i>magazines in August 1945.<\/p>\n

What happened, Bradbury proudly revealed, was \u201cthree sales in three days by an unknown writer with no agent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming up on the Prometheus Blog: Part two of the Bradbury interview<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

ABOUT THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS AND THE LFS:<\/b><\/p>\n

*\u00a0Join us!<\/b> To help sustain the Prometheus Awards and support a cultural and literary strategy to appreciate and honor freedom-loving fiction, \u00a0join<\/a> the Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf\/fantasy fans.<\/p>\n

Libertarian futurists understand that culture matters. We believe that literature and the arts can be vital in envisioning a freer and better future.<\/p>\n

In some ways, culture can be even more influential and powerful than politics in the long run, by imagining better visions of the future incorporating peace, prosperity, progress, tolerance, justice, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other\u2019s rights, human dignity, individuality and peaceful choices.<\/p>\n

* Prometheus winners:\u00a0<\/b>For the full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees \u2013 including the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards \u2013 visit the enhanced\u00a0Prometheus Awards page<\/a>\u00a0on the LFS website, which now includes convenient links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each of more than 100 past winners since 1979 fits the awards\u2019 distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Watch videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies, Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog\u2019s\u00a0Video page.<\/a><\/p>\n

* Read \u201cThe Libertarian History of Science Fiction,\u201d<\/a> an essay in the international magazine\u00a0Quillette<\/i>\u00a0that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf\/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.<\/p>\n

* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society\u2019s Facebook page<\/a> for comments, updates and links to Prometheus Blog posts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossberg Ray Bradbury was born Aug. 22, 1920 and lived a creative and productive life until 2012. In honor of Bradbury’s birthday, the Prometheus Blog is reprinting an interview I did with the acclaimed and bestselling storyteller in the mid-1980s – one of the interviews I found most stimulating and satisfying during my … Continue reading Remembering a literary giant on his birthday: My interview with Ray Bradbury<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36,2201],"tags":[641,2591,68,2593,2592],"class_list":["post-8898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","category-ray-bradbury","tag-fahrenheit-451","tag-network","tag-ray-bradbury","tag-something-wicked-this-way-comes","tag-the-martian-chronicles"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-2jw","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8898"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9445,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8898\/revisions\/9445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}